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All I can say is here we are in damn near August 2018, which is the 50th anniversary month of the band forming, and still no clear statements about any live shows or vault content that will be released . The fan community is speculating all over the place, but its all blind groping at this point...still! All we have so far in the pipeline is an official book , and a remaster of TSRTS. ( YAWN!!!😒 ) Someone just asked me if I heard that there was going to be an early show, from late '68 released....did I miss something? Another rumor??

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It's very worrying there is no hype of something coming up. Maybe instead of another drawn out press junket which must not be appealing to Page he is going to shock us all and engage instant super-hype by appearing and playing live without notice. Instantly galvanizing us lot as well as conjuring up a much wider ground swell of interest and excitement??? Probably not, I admit. But that would be a serious BOSS move by the man.

If he does finally bite the bullet and get the F out there and play, that'd be the way to do it. Don't announce, just appear at a modest, nice venue under a pseudonym.

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All I can say is here we are in damn near August 2018, which is the 50th anniversary month of the band forming, and still no clear statements about any live shows or vault content that will be released . The fan community is speculating all over the place, but its all blind groping at this point...still! All we have so far in the pipeline is an official book , and a remaster of TSRTS. ( YAWN!!!😒 ) Someone just asked me if I heard that there was going to be an early show, from late '68 released....did I miss something? Another rumor??

Barely any evidence the tape even exists so I'm ignoring that Surrey uni rumour

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All I can say is here we are in damn near August 2018, which is the 50th anniversary month of the band forming, and still no clear statements about any live shows or vault content that will be released . The fan community is speculating all over the place, but its all blind groping at this point...still! All we have so far in the pipeline is an official book , and a remaster of TSRTS. ( YAWN!!!😒 ) Someone just asked me if I heard that there was going to be an early show, from late '68 released....did I miss something? Another rumor??

Which reminds me of 1990 when the boxed set was announced (pre internet daze, remember)...i sold all my (loophole grey market) live cd's, since I was convinced we would get a live anthology. All we got was a remastered studio compilation in a big square box and (with the exception of the Beeb 69 White Summer) , NO live stuff. 😱

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Which reminds me of 1990 when the boxed set was announced (pre internet daze, remember)...i sold all my (loophole grey market) live cd's, since I was convinced we would get a live anthology. All we got was a remastered studio compilation in a big square box and (with the exception of the Beeb 69 White Summer) , NO live stuff. 😱

I don't know what you were reading back in 1990, but the announcement I read made it quite clear that the 1990 box was going to be the first sonic upgrade of the studio stuff since the advent of CDs. Only a couple of unreleased tracks were hinted at but the main reason for the box was always to rectify the shitty job Atlantic did with the initial cds. So I was not expecting a bunch of live tracks and certainly did not sell any of my live Zeppelin albums.

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All I can say is here we are in damn near August 2018, which is the 50th anniversary month of the band forming, and still no clear statements about any live shows or vault content that will be released . The fan community is speculating all over the place, but its all blind groping at this point...still! All we have so far in the pipeline is an official book , and a remaster of TSRTS. ( YAWN!!!😒 ) Someone just asked me if I heard that there was going to be an early show, from late '68 released....did I miss something? Another rumor??

Somewhat credible rumors are circulating of a '68 release. Indications are that it will likely be studio material only - stuff held back from the 2014 Zep I reissue. In addition, the rumors are that a live release will be a compilation of tracks from multiple years, which I suppose could perhaps contain one or two '68 tracks, but I doubt that. (I suppose a '68 release could instead follow the Yardbirds '68 pattern and be a single-CD short-ish live performance with a 2nd, even shorter CD of studio outtakes - but if that were the case, I really feel that over the many years and decades some credible rumor or sign of an existing professionally or semi-professionally recorded '68 live tape would've surfaced.)

As for the timing, all the press has been very clear about what is and is not part of the official 50th Anniversary "celebration." The TSRTS reissue is not part of that - the press release clearly says it's the final release in the reissue/remaster campaign of their back catalogue.

And BTW, that tidbit strongly corroborates the idea that a live compilation will be coming out - because if the reissue campaign is complete, then the one thing that very conspicuously has not been reissued is the 2003 LZ DVD. And I would be flabbergasted if the Royal Albert Hall, Earls Court, and Knebworth performances on that DVD were simply allowed to die on the vine and not appear again in some form on some kind of reissue. Even in the context of Page/Zep's bizarre release decisions, that would make no sense. I'm certain (or at least as certain as one can be given that it's Zep we're talking about) that we'll see at least some of that material again in some reissued form, although who knows how long we'll have to wait, given that Page said in an interview that more stuff will be coming out over the next 10(!) years.

The only 50th Anniversary release so far has been, as you noted, the book, which is coming out in October.

My understand is that the original plan was to release TSRTS either earlier this year before HTWWW, or else this summer, with the first 50th Anniversary audio release coming in September. The TSRTS remastering job was completed a few (perhaps several) months ago.

However, for whatever reason things got changed/delayed, and so TSRTS couldn't come out then. Most of the prior reissues have been released late in the month. The fact that TSRTS is coming out early in September - basically right after Labor Day when everyone in the US market will be back from vacation and paying attention again - strongly suggests that they're trying to get it out as soon as possible in the fall, in order to clear the way for a late-Sept or Oct announcement of a 50th Anniversary related audio release, to follow the book and come out sometime in the holiday buying season.

This is all speculation, although I would say it is somewhat informed speculation and not totally random - and I don't think it's wishful thinking clouding my judgment either, since the above is far from ideal in terms what I would wish for! 😀

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It's very worrying there is no hype of something coming up. Maybe instead of another drawn out press junket which must not be appealing to Page he is going to shock us all and engage instant super-hype by appearing and playing live without notice. Instantly galvanizing us lot as well as conjuring up a much wider ground swell of interest and excitement??? Probably not, I admit. But that would be a serious BOSS move by the man.

If he does finally bite the bullet and get the F out there and play, that'd be the way to do it. Don't announce, just appear at a modest, nice venue under a pseudonym.

I should be his manager.....

Funnily enough that was a Grant idea from back in the day. Unannounced gigs at off the wall venues (Waterloo station and The Oval cricket ground were mentioned). Just set up and play, the buzz builds and by the 3rd or 4th number a huge crowd has gathered. Pity it never happened, it'd have been a great event.

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Somewhat credible rumors are circulating of a '68 release. Indications are that it will likely be studio material only - stuff held back from the 2014 Zep I reissue. In addition, the rumors are that a live release will be a compilation of tracks from multiple years, which I suppose could perhaps contain one or two '68 tracks, but I doubt that. (I suppose a '68 release could instead follow the Yardbirds '68 pattern and be a single-CD short-ish live performance with a 2nd, even shorter CD of studio outtakes - but if that were the case, I really feel that over the many years and decades some credible rumor or sign of an existing '68 tape would've surfaced.)

I wasn't following it that closely back in 2002/3, but how many rumours were there that the multitracks of LA & Long Beach existed? I'm clutching at straws I know, but if those can remain broadly unknown for so long, I'm willing to believe there might be a '68 live tape, even if it's a long shot.

I could care less about recording quality either, just to hear them onstage in Sept or Oct '68 when arrangements were still being worked out would make my musical year, possibly decade. JPJ said Communication Breakdown "emerged" from a live jam on Train Kept a Rollin, imagine actually hearing the show where it happened.

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I wasn't following it that closely back in 2002/3, but how many rumours were there that the multitracks of LA & Long Beach existed? I'm clutching at straws I know, but if those can remain broadly unknown for so long......

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Could it be that this is it and that is that?!? Percy has always been one to move on. .

I really doubt that. I agree with you RE Plant, but to my knowledge he's never out-and-out vetoed an entire reissue campaign or idea. I believe there are rumors that back in '81/'82 he vetoed a live compilation, forcing Page to do Coda as a studio compilation instead. And of course he's been against live reunions. But he didn't veto all the companion-disc material for the studio album reissues, or the added live tracks on the Complete BBC reissue, or the added tracks on the 2007 expanded TSRTS - or even the live LZ DVD for that matter, which was basically the live compilation Page had wanted to do back in '81/'82.

So I don't think Plant will nix all new reissues. And while Page can exaggerate and delay, he doesn't outright lie when it comes to Zep releases. So when he said never-before-stuff will be coming out, IMHO you can bank on it. What exactly "never before heard" means, and how much or how little is coming out, and over what timeline - that's all stuff where I wouldn't take Page at his word on specifics, and I'd prepare to have modest expectations.

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His quote at the start of this thread came well after the last of the (studio album) reissues so I would hope you are wrong there.

Yeah, let's wait til September before we lose hope. Page himself has openly promised some live goodies for the anniversary. If he doesn't deliver something by September then we can punch holes in our respective walls.

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it is just the constant promise of something, that then turns out to be nothing

and the way that the Zeppelin legacy is handled becomes wearying as a fan.

I know that nobody on this board is probably a Dead fan,but the way that their

back live catalogue is handled and packaged puts the crumbs that Zep fans are offered

to shame.

You're disappointed now, prepare for that disappointment to get a whole lot worse. Page is a business man and he knows how to keep people hanging on, he's the master of hinting gold then handing out tin.

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I'm too young to catch any of the original Zep releases except Coda, which was out of the blue (if you were not on the fan inner circle grapevine). I got the impression they always did everything a bit out of the blue as far as activity announcements, presumably to keep the mystic alive?

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Somewhat credible rumors are circulating of a '68 release. Indications are that it will likely be studio material only - stuff held back from the 2014 Zep I reissue. In addition, the rumors are that a live release will be a compilation of tracks from multiple years, which I suppose could perhaps contain one or two '68 tracks, but I doubt that. (I suppose a '68 release could instead follow the Yardbirds '68 pattern and be a single-CD short-ish live performance with a 2nd, even shorter CD of studio outtakes - but if that were the case, I really feel that over the many years and decades some credible rumor or sign of an existing professionally or semi-professionally recorded '68 live tape would've surfaced.)

The only person anywhere saying a ‘68 live release has been BLACK SWAN over at Royal-Orleans.com. He’s been talking about three 1968 stage recordings and some ‘68, 8mm film for many years now.

He even mentioned them coming out this year but now has changed his story saying they might not now.

Not sure how this guy has become an expert ( who is he rally??) on live Zeppelin tapes but I guess we’ll see...